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Introducing Mr. Evason

When Mark Van Guilder heard Dean Evason was hired as the new coach of the Milwaukee Admirals, the center knew exactly who to call for the scouting report: defenseman Tyler Sloan.

Evason was an assistant coach with Washington the last seven seasons, and Sloan played for the Capitals for three years before joining Van Guilder and the Admirals last season.

“The first thing I did was contact Sloan because I knew he played for him,” Van Guilder said. “I’m pretty excited. Sloaner, I have a lot of respect for him, and he had nothing but great things to say. That’s about as good as a report you can get, I think. After what he told me, I didn’t feel the need to talk to anyone else about him.”

The 47-year-old Evason was introduced as Milwaukee’s 20th coach Wednesday morning at the Bradley Center. He’s married with three children, and his aunt and uncle live in Brookfield. His cousin resides in Elm Grove.

Evason replaces Ian Herbers, who left after one season as Admirals’ head coach to run the program at the University of Alberta and be closer to his family.

“We’re honored and excited to have him here to help continue the tradition of excellence that has been built with our relationship with the Nashville Predators,” Milwaukee president Jon Greenberg said. “Our relationship is one of the models for hockey success of an AHL-NHL partnership.”

The four Milwaukee coaches before Herbers are all currently head or assistant coaches in the NHL, including Kirk Muller, who left after his first 17 games with the Admirals last year to lead the Carolina Hurricanes.

“I’m not naïve, I certainly I want to get back to the NHL, but I’m in no rush to get there,” Evason said. “As a head coach, I know there’s a lot of things that I have to learn, that I want to develop in my coaching style. … I want to develop just as I want our players to develop. Obviously Kirk’s situation last year was quick. That’s everyone’s job here as well, to develop people, not only coaches and players, but front office people. Everybody wants to get to the highest level. So I’m looking forward to that someday.”

Evason was head coach of three different teams in the Western Hockey League from 1999-2000 to 2004-’05. He became an assistant with Washington the following season.

The Capitals also needed a head coach for this upcoming season, but Evason was not hired because he says George McPhee told him “they were going in another direction.”

So Evason contacted Nashville general manager David Poile – he was the GM in Washington when the team drafted Evason in 1982 – and was hired by Predators’ assistant GM Paul Fenton, who played two years with Evason in the minors and on the 1991-’92 San Jose Sharks team.

Evason thinks being a head coach in the AHL improves his chances to become one in the NHL. He could have remained an assistant in the NHL and avoid things like early morning bus rides to Peoria immediately after a game, but …

“Buses don’t scare me,” Evason said. “I enjoy sleeping on them. I enjoy the time you have. You can get a lot of stuff done when you’re on the bus. Obviously the greatest league in the world is the NHL, but it’s almost stupid how spoiled you are there with the travel, with your accommodations, the meals and all that. To get to the NHL would’ve been amazing if you go from an assistant coach to a head coach. But I think you miss a step.”